BP and Shell urged to stop using shareholders' money to fund libertarian lobby group

BP and Shell have been urged to stop using shareholders’ money to fund a US lobby group that promotes looser gun laws and the teaching of climate change denial in schools.

The oil firms are members of the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which greases the wheels of communication between politicians and corporate interests.

Dozens of companies, including McDonald’s and Wal-Mart, left ALEC after the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012, over its advocacy for the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law on self-defence shootings.

Under pressure: The oil firms are members of the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council

British drugs firm GlaxoSmithKline and consumer goods giant Unilever also ended their association with ALEC.

But BP and Shell remain member-donors, prompting criticism from investment institutions who say use of shareholders’ money to fund ALEC is opaque and improper.

US and UK investors have called on BP in particular to end its membership and funding of ALEC.

‘On the one hand they support lobbying against climate change measures but publicly they promote risk mitigation against climate change,’ said Lauren Compere, managing director of US firm Boston Common Asset Management.

‘They look at it as an opportunity to have a voice in the US but it’s the wrong kind of voice. Reputation-wise it doesn’t make sense,’ she added.

Responsible investment group ShareAction said membership of ALEC was a ‘highly questionable allocation of shareholder money’ and ‘at odds with the stated values of BP and Shell’.

ALEC does not release information on its funding or membership, but BP is understood to have given $100,000 to pay for a conference in 2011.

BP said that although it had provided financial support for ALEC, it was not involved in discussions on gun law, participating only in the group’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force.

But even membership of that task force is at odds with the firm’s public acknowledgement of man-made climate change.

ALEC produced a model bill for states to sign up to, which mandates state-funded schools to teach climate change denial.